Sheila Superior
by Astir Lao Nim
Summary: What if you took the high out of high fantasy and imposed some order on the world? How long can a civilization believe they live in a land of unpredictable magic and savage monsters? And what happens when Sheila decides to take her job seriously?
1. Prologue - Part One

This fan fiction doesn't exist. You've never heard of it. If someone wishes to discuss it with you, please gently suggest that hallucinations are a serious medical problem.

Superior and Superior Cross are originally written by Ichtys and published under Square Enix in _Gangan Powered _and_ Monthly GFantasy_. Please support the official release where available.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

This fanfic does not depart from a single premise. Expect a lot of backstory to have been changed (some very little, some rewritten) as well as a lot of new characters, places and conflicts.

For some reason, a lot of places, people and species go unnamed in Superior so far as I can tell. So if you encounter a word or name that you've never seen in the original material, just roll with it. Similarly there seems to be a healthy skepticism of the applicability of biology in the original manga, so I have attempted to impose some kind of order there.

For those of you expecting Japanese suffixes and similar cultural expressions or themes. While I do have a very basic knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of the language, for both my sanity and the sake of readers who do not I will be ignoring such issues. The only exception to this is if I make up a new word, such as hanhinshu. On such occasions I will attempt to borrow from a plausible Japanese compound.

Reviews are both welcomed and encouraged.

* * *

"The problem with arch-villainy is when bidding needs done, you always have to send someone else."

* * *

Appearing out of nowhere, killing more than half the human population of the world and subjugating the yokai, people called this demon possessing astonishing power Maou. People sent a superior man to defeat it.

* * *

Sheila, the fierce queen of the yokai empire sat staring out a window which overlooked the main gates to the castle in which she found herself. Most would call her beautiful though humans usually would be off put by her long, pointy ears. She was occupying herself by idly flicking around a pebble she had pried loose from the wall and reading a book she had found lying around.

As far as it could hold her interest the book seemed to be about a horrible beast being saved through the power of love, or maybe friendship. She didn't really care enough to pay that much attention.

"Ugh. I can't believe this was lying around."

Sheila set the book down and leaned back on an outcropping of the wall where she was sitting.

"A rebelling baron doesn't seem the type to be caught up in this kind of sweet stuff."

Sheila heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Well not quite footsteps. Footsteps might have been troublesome. This was the sort of sound that difficult even to imagine, but it was definitely the sound of stepping.

Kagami, the effective ruler of Sheila's kingdom stepped into view in his usual strange manner of tentacle based locomotion.

Seeing Kagami, Sheila had the same thought that she got every time Kagami came into her presence. _I can't imagine what possible force of nature would bring something like him into this world to live on land._

"Welcome back Kagami. As slimy as ever I take it?"

Having taken the insult beyond count Kagami's didn't so much as blink as he answered, "I take it you've been sitting around doing nothing again Maou."

Sheila, not nearly as controlled as Kagami when it came to insults, crushed the pebble she had been playing with to dust as the said, "I've told you a million times not to call me that."

"Oh, have you? Well it's no surprise that you've earned the title. When I actually get you to do your work, there's never any survivors to establish gender or race to the other humans. It'd hurt their pride to think a young, human-looking female was destroying their empire."

"Rather than a hulking king of demons eh? Maybe I should just leave my jobs half done from now on."

Kagami performed what one might call a face palm where some creative reinterpretation of anatomy to take place.

"I'm willing to play the role of a grand vizier for you, but someday you'll have to actually take the reigns of leadership."

"Not this speech again…"

"Queen Sheila, you're the first and maybe the only person to have the strength necessary to unite the yokai world. The only reason I can keep the kingdom intact is because you listen to me just enough to make everyone uneasy about jockeying for power."

"Sigh… Let's talk about this later. Or never. Did you find the baron?"

"Well he wasn't in the half _I_ searched."

"Fine I'll deal with him. Happy now?"

Kagami's response was a stare in her general direction. As she was about to respond she noticed that her general direction also included the window and consequentially the castle entrance.

Looking out the window she saw a handsome youth striding into the courtyard alone with nothing but a sword.

"Kagami. What human is stupid enough to wander in here alone?"

"I think that might be the hero the humans hired to kill you."

"Oh? Another one? The only good one they ever found was the first one, and he quit. This one though, seems sort of familiar."

"I do check the background of every hero if you're interested."

"I guess that means I've met him before. Was it in a restaurant?"

"I feel it necessary to ask. How much money do you take from villages we destroy to spend at human establishments?"

"Not all that much. It's not like human currency is used in the kingdom. Besides if there's any reason to not wipe out the humans it's for the food they make."

"Any more guesses or revelations you want to make?"

"Hmm…" Sheila thought back and all the humans that particularly stuck out in her memory. "A childhood friend?"

"Are you serious?"

"About as serious as any other guess I suppose."

"You did meet as children…relatively."

"Ah ha!"

"But if you consider yourself a child then or him your friend you have more issues than I imagine."

"Are we destined rivals then? Prophesied to fight until one ultimate victor emerges," Sheila's voice was slowly gaining strength and her eyes were almost shining. "An enemy with whom our fights shall shake the world! A worthy opponent! I'm getting so excited just thinking about it!"

"Not really."

Sheila collapsed to the floor and turned to look at Kagami, her face looking as if she just had her heart broken.

"I swear. If you displayed half this enthusiasm or emotion during your work we should have long ago had the world in our hands. Anyways, it took a lot of work but I'm fairly sure this is the survivor of Altessa."

"The one the first hero saved?"

"The very same. The one that took a beating from you but continued to fight and severely injured me. When he was ten I should mention. Afterward he disappeared for over a decade under the care and tutelage of the first hero. While it is unlikely he poses a threat to you, be careful. I shall be of no use against him should he attack."

"Interesting. I remember getting a bit carried away with my taunting back then. By the way. Now that I've been reminded of it, why did we never deal with him before now? If you hadn't been working me to death the week before I shouldn't have had any trouble against either of them."

"As humbling as it is to admit, I was unable to track him or the original hero down until he revealed himself. The smoke from the desolation in the battle field obscuring his face was certainly not helping."

"Fair enough. He shouldn't remember what I look like then either."

"That should be the obvious guess considering the human kingdoms aren't flooded with pictures of you. If nothing else he is probably aware that you look human."

"I think I'll go have some fun. Please take care of the baron for me."

Kagami bowed and Sheila started to walk down the hallway in the general direction of some stairs.

Before she got far, Kagami said, "Just so you know. This hero is different. Intelligence says that he saves both humans and yokai."

* * *

Sheila had wandered into what she believed to be the castle gardens. The shrubbery was cut with meticulous precision, the statues were of the finest quality and the sound of the central fountain filled the air.

_What kind of budget do we have for these outposts? I could see ominous gargoyles for intimidation, but this is over-the-top lavish. I'll have to get Kagami to move all of it to my palace later._

A thunderous roar came from behind Sheila as a silver dragon wearing a collar landed behind her. A deafening crash accompanied the dragon's decent as a garden filled with valuable art was no place for a lumbering beast.

_So much for my new interior design. And why the collar? What moron would expect a collar to shackle a dragon? Wait, where did it come from? There must be dragons above every doorway in this place. Of course not!_

Sheila shrugged and shook her head as she sighed. Then she sighed again but without the added theatrics.

_I need to find a proper partner to my boke. That was just pathetic._

Off to the side of the gardens Sheila could see the hero come running into the gardens, no doubt drawn by the noise.

An astute smile showed on Sheila's face as she called out to the hero, "Hey! Hero! The poor, weak me is being attacked by this vicious dragon! Please save me!"

It was obvious Sheila had never been a damsel in distress and had probably never seen one either. The waving, the cheery smile and the general bounciness with which she asked for help all screamed _not in danger _but nonetheless the hero rushed over to her side just in time to block the dragon's fire jet.

"Color coded for my convenience," muttered the hero. "Yeah right! Dragon! You've been painted silver haven't you? Either you're actually a red dragon, or you don't exist! That or start spewing…whatever it is that's silver and spews!"

As the hero stood there pointing at the dragon, index finger extended accusingly, both Sheila and the dragon were, to put it mildly, mentally stunned.

"Good," the hero continued. "Now while it's confused we run."

The hero grabbed the still speechless Sheila and flung her over his shoulder as he ran out of the gardens. The two dashed through the stone corridors taking turns at random and running past the occasional confused yokai peeking out into the hallway.

* * *

Exa finally stopped in the antechamber just outside the throne room. He put Sheila down he asked, "Are you okay?"

To which Sheila responded with a flying kick carefully controlled not to pack her usual brand of destruction.

Standing over the hero she knocked over she leaned down and grabbed him by the collar.

"You can't be the boke. That's my exclusive right."

The hero stared back at Sheila with the same stupefied expression she had only moments ago.

"What?"

Sheila dropped the hero back to the ground blushing a bit and averting her eyes from his.

"Never mind. Thank you for saving me. Although judging from that magical shield you threw up and your speed you probably could have just killed the dragon instead of carrying me so roughly like that. Haven't you ever saved a damsel in distress before."

"Are you seriously weighing murder and a bit of discomfort against each other?"

Sheila grabbed the hero's hand and helped him to his feet.

"What do you mean? You're the hero, right? Rumor has it that you also save monsters, but it's just the stunning beauties like me, isn't it?"

"I'm trying to bring a peaceful conclusion to our war for everyone. I fight if I must to save a life, but I won't kill anyone, human or yokai."

A moment of silence passed until Sheila broke down into a laughing fit and had to grab the hero's shoulder to stay balanced.

"You don't have to laugh so hard."

"No…but…it's like you're straight out of a story. Do you really believe humans and _yokai_ can get along?"

"I know they can," the hero said clenching his fist and looking into the distance.

Hearing a snickering sound the Hero quickly looked back at Sheila who looked away innocently.

"And what about you then? Why do you know the human language if you think we can't get along?"

"Couldn't I just be a spy?"

"A spy that sticks out as much as you is worse than useless."

"Should I take that as an insult," clinging to the hero, Sheila continued, "or a complement?"

The hero reddened and pushed Sheila off of his arm.

"That's not what I meant."

"Humph. If you must know," Sheila continued softer, "it's because your food is good."

The hero grabbed both of Sheila's shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

"Wha!?"

"You have no right to laugh at me."

"You jerk!" Sheila shouted, knocking the hero off of her. "Learn a sense of timing. I grew up near the border and snuck into human cities to eat. Got a problem with that?"

"Not so long as you paid for it," said the hero while still rubbing his stinging arms.

"Of course I did. It'd be disgraceful if I got a reputation for petty theft."

"Still, that seemed like a bit of an overreaction. Were you expecting something else?"

Sheila turned around, crossed her arms and said, "Not really."

"Hit the nail on the head did I?"

Turning back Sheila replied, "Nonsense."

"You're too weak on defense to be falsely flirting to get your laughs."

Sheila looked about to cry as she mumbled, "But, it wasn't, fake…"

Sheila's response made the hero frantically search his mind for anything he could possibly say to her. Reaching his wit's end and still being unable to think of anything comforting he hazarded an attempt.

"I'm sorry. I'm still young and foolish. Please forgive me."

"Only if you'll take me with you."

"I can't do that. My journey is dangerous. I can't risk your safety like that."

Sheila sniffed, and tears could be seen forming at the corners of her eyes.

"Wait, wait. You can come with. For a while at least."

"Really."

"Sure. You probably know the yokai kingdom's geography pretty well anyways. That should be a big help."

"Shall you carry me around too?"

"Err…maybe once in a while."

Sheila dried her eyes and started laughing.

"Looks like you're the one that needs practice."

The hero's gaped at Sheila's acting.

"That was all…"

"Yep. And you're too much of a good guy to break a promise even knowing you've been tricked, are you not?"

The hero hung his head, defeated.

"Now that that's settled, would you care to tell me your name, partner?"

"…Exa. Yours?"

"Queen Sheila."

"Queen of what? I certainly hope you don't mean me."

"All the yokai."

"Maou?"

"Don't call me that."

"Pff. All right Sheila. I need to finish my business here and then we can leave."

"And what's that?"

"The baron here has been causing trouble to nearby human settlements. I was asked to deal with the problem."

"You might have a problem there if you're not going to kill him."

"Why? Apparently he wasn't nearly as aggressive before."

"That's the problem. The old baron was killed by the new one who is in open rebellion." Sheila paused a moment and added, "At least that's what I was told."

"Err…is assassination the usual means by which someone rises to power in the yokai empire?"

A bit puzzled, Sheila responded, "Yeah. Although some are appointed if they're particularly strong."

Exa leaned against the gateway he was about to open.

"Seems my dream is further away than I thought."

Exa opened the gate to the throne room and stepped inside with Sheila trailing behind. The throne room was a large hall supported by several massive columns several stories in height with intricate details running all the way up. The room was barren except for a long rug that lead up to the throne which was raised on a pedestal.

On the throne sat the usurper with a horrified expression locked on his face. Closer inspection revealed that there were several large circular holes puncturing his large scaly chest through his armor which has several fractures characteristic of an enchantment breaking.

"Looks like you were too late Exa."

"These wounds…they look fresh. Maybe. I've never seen anything leave this kind of hole before, so it's kind of hard to tell, but the blood still hasn't dried."

Sheila was looking around the room for stuff she would like, but the only thing she could find were spiders in a corner. While she was doing this, she heard Exa begin to draw his sword only to put it back after stopping for a few seconds.

_He probably took me seriously for a moment and thought I did it instead of Kagami. Of course, I've been with him for too long for that to be the case. So even someone as idealistic as him can be cold and calculating._

"Did you find anything Sheila?"

"Nothing but spiders. I didn't see any loot worthwhile while you carried me through the castle either."

"I wasn't asking about loot. And don't take anything."

"What else would you be looking for?"

"Clues as to who did it."

"Why? Want to try becoming the first human lord in the yokai kingdom? I might just be willing to oblige if you ask nicely."

"I need to make sure that who ever did this is brought to justice and the situation returns to normal for the humans."

"I'd imagine with two barons dead here no one shall be interested in stirring up trouble, so you needn't worry about the humans. Even if someone was that foolish you'd have to wait months before the problem resurfaced. Are you going to stay here that long?"

"No…I can't wait that long. But I can't just let this go."

"Why not?"

"If I don't do something about it I'll be tacitly accepting this murder."

"And then what?"

"What do you mean?"

"What shall you do when you find the person that did it? Shall you give them a lecture and a stern finger wag? I'm sure they'll be real sorry after that. Maybe you'll beat them up and force your will upon them. I wonder how long that shall last and if you can live with yourself after. If you give them over to either nation it shall only result in an execution and maybe your own as well. And what if he was killed by the government he was rebelling against? Surely that counts as a war casualty instead of a murder. Or do you want to condemn every soldier and anyone who supports their actions?"

"Wait. Not so many questions. I can't…"

"Solve the problem. I know. I wasn't going to bother before, but I'll say it now. Don't waste your time with a ridiculous quest for self-gratification."

"Sheila. Please…"

"And what about your real task? It's my understanding that you were hired exclusively to kill Maou. What do you plan to do about that?"

Exa grabbed Sheila by the throat and pinned her to a column, a cold stare on his face as he reached for his sword with his free hand.

"That's right. You claimed to be Maou didn't you. I shall kill Maou. Not for justice but for my own revenge. Maybe I should kill you now on the off chance you're telling the truth."

"So the hero reveals his true colors. You don't even have the strength to forgive for the sake of your ideal. How can you expect everyone else to forget their grievances if you, the shinning example, can not?"

"Maou killed millions of people! Humans and yokai! It can not be left alive!"

"Don't try to hide your blood lust behind justice. Even if everyone wants you to do it, you shall know what you've done. What your revenge shall make you."

"Don't say it!"

"Murderer."

"No!"

"Fake hero."

"Stop!"

"Maou."

Exa slowly released his grip, and Sheila slid down the column back to her feet. Dropping his sword, he then fell to his knees, head down and shaking. It was not long before Sheila could see tears falling to the ground leaving behind faint traces as the disappeared into cracks.

Sheila bent down and hugged Exa so that she could whisper into his ear.

"But you are not a demon yet. You can think about what to do when you are rested. The great Queen Sheila shall keep you safe."

Exa almost immediately collapsed in Sheila's arms. She then laid his head down on her lap and leaned back on the column behind her. After nursing the pain in her own neck, she started caressing Exa's hair.

_What am I doing?_

After a couple minutes, Kagami entered from a place Sheila could only guess at.

"I see you're getting better at mysterious entrances."

"That was the most terrifying display I have seen from you yet milady."

"I suppose. He should wake up stronger for it though."

"So you're not going to kill him? Why not?"

"Well, I suppose you could say his idiocy inspired me to take my job more seriously."

"That's fantastic news if true, but my overwhelming gratitude isn't enough to wish for him to continue living."

"Two weeks. I'm going to spend two weeks in his company and after that come pick me up. Until then I don't want any interruptions. That includes from the army. Give them a holiday or something."

"…I'll do what I can. Do you know where you shall be going?"

"Not a clue. I don't want anyone tailing me so if you'll hang on a moment."

Sheila reached down into the ground leaving a ripple behind as her hand passed through the stone floor. Out of the ground she pulled a one-eyed, fuzzy, black ball. When if was completely pulled out it began to move towards Kagami in hopping motions with no discernible manner of locomotion.

"What is that?"

"It's sort of like an extension of me. I can make them in any size and shape although the more detail the harder and longer it takes to do. This one shall follow you around, but that's about it. When I'm ready for you to pick me up I'll send word through this. Also if you have anything extraordinarily important to tell me just squeeze it and you'll get my attention."

"How long have you been able to do this?"

"Probably since I was born. Why the interest?"

"This is a massive advantage in war. Even without participating yourself these…I…"

"Look Kagami. I shouldn't want to leave me either, but I do ask that you leave now."

"Until we meet again my Queen. I hope your newfound sense of responsibility does not waver."

With that Kagami departed out the main gate, disappeared from Sheila's sight and eventually she was no longer able to sense his presence except through the little black fuzz ball she had given him.

* * *

Exa awoke feeling miserable. What little he could remember of his dreams felt accusatory, and his whole body felt fatigued. Opening his eyes he could see Sheila's sleeping face staring down at him.

_So much for keeping me safe._

The next thing he noticed was that there were trees above Sheila's head.

_Where am I?_

Exa removed himself from Sheila's lap being careful not to wake her up. Looking around he found that they were on the road that lead to the baron's castle. In particular, they were at the first fork in the road that split between paths leading to different human kingdoms.

_This is over ten leagues from the castle! How did we get here? The sun's just beginning to set now. She couldn't have carried me this far alone. Does she have a dragon with her?_

Exa searched through the nearby forest and up and down the road for any signs that a dragon had landed but couldn't find any.

_Well, however we got here it should seem she kept her word. In all fairness, I should keep mine._

* * *

As Sheila woke up, she could feel a small bump at a regular pace. It felt like her wrists had been loosely tied together and someone was carrying her on their back.

Still half asleep Sheila yawned and, not bothering to open her eyes, said, "Who dares take the great Queen Sheila while she slumbers?"

"You don't remember tricking me into carrying you?"

"Carrying? I think I carried something recently. Where's Kagami?"

"Who's Kagami?"

"The lord high chancellor or grand vizier or something."

"Unbelievable. Even while dreaming you're going on about that."

"Huh?"

Sheila opened her eyes and saw Exa looking back towards her. It was night and the moon provided more than enough light to see by. Countless trees crept by as the two advanced down the path. Sheila slipped her wrists out of the cloth holding them together to rub her eyes.

"Where are we?"

"About an hour's walk from Belcoast and a nice warm bed. We'll be meeting our companions there when they get back from their own tasks."

"Are you still broken?"

"Ha ha. I suppose so."

"That's no good. You're of no use if you've lost your determination to do anything."

"Being the perpetrator, do you have any advice?"

"If you really want the yokai queen's advice I suggest you try figuring out whom your real enemy is. If your actions conflict with your moral code one of them needs to be changed. Although I could be misleading you."

"You don't have any intention of helping do you?"

"I've already helped plenty by forcing you to confront your problems. Trials, cryptic nonsense and philosophy are the only help someone my age should give to someone your age. I suppose I could act as the cavalry too."

"How old are you?"

"How old are _you_?"

"Twenty-seven."

"Then we're roughly at the same point in our life cycle. That's all you need to know. Be happy that I'm not a short lived yokai so you can appreciate me as I am all your life."

"Well isn't that nice."

Sheila began shuffling through the bag Exa had slung over his shoulder. The resulting shifts in his center of gravity caused Exa to swerve a bit as he walked.

"Can you stop that? It's hard to walk when you're shuffling through my bag like that."

"I already found what I was looking for."

Sheila pulled out a loose fitting and unimpressive hat and put it on her head so that it hid her ears.

"And what was it?"

"A hat."

"I don't carry hats around."

"I took one from the castle before leaving. It wouldn't be good for me to just stroll into a city with my ears hanging out."

"You shouldn't steal things Sheila."

"It's just a hat. It's not even a nice hat. If it wasn't functional, I should burn this thing right now as a tribute to real hats."

"That's quite a passion for hats you have."

"Nothing says I'm important like a nice hat. The nicer, the more important."

"Right…"

"Don't believe me? Why do you think your kings wear crowns in public? It's certainly not for the neck damage."

"Your crown must be really impressive then oh great yokai queen."

"I prefer my royal regalia to be more function and personal. So I don't have a crown."

Exa glanced back at what he could see of Sheila's clothes as she hung from her back. The dull colors laked the invocation of majesty one should expect from a queen. They exposed more skin than even a common girl would in summer.

"You're thinking I don't look very queenly, aren't you?"

"We should find you new clothes either way."

"No ruler wears those kinds of clothes in private and especially not on the war path. It's right and proper that I'm dressed like this."

"I'm at least wearing armor."

"Tell me about it. It's a lot less comfortable back here because of that."

"Oh. You might as well walk then."

"I didn't say I wanted to get down."

"Then just put up with it."

"You could have a pack horse or something."

"I try to take as little out of the public treasury as I can."

"Why is that?"

"The people are already suffering enough from constant war without public funds being drained too."

"I can't decide if you're not very smart or if you're just blinded by your conception of good."

Exa leg go of Sheila's legs, but she kept a firm grip on him and didn't fall. Sighing, Exa grabbed her legs again.

"Even if you have a valid point to make couldn't you try to be a bit nicer going about it?"

"For simplicity let's say right now your actions each generate a thousand gold each time on average and you have a maintenance of ten gold a day. Then so long as you defeat a villain or save a village or whatever more than once every hundred days you are a net benefit to the people, not speaking on whether or not you are the best possible outlet for that money. Now assume you invest say ten-thousand gold in one of those fancy new steam cars you humans made recently which causes your maintenance to increase to say twenty gold a day. Now so long as you double your activity your break even except for the sunk cost of the car. However the drastic decrease in travel time, which at this rate seems to be your biggest time cost, should greatly increase the good you can do so you should quickly make up the cost of the purchase. Not to mention any other positive externalities that would result. Even a horse and cart should yield massive return. So basically, if the king chooses to fund you, regardless of whether or not that is the best decision, I think you should be hard pressed to spend so much that you should actually be a hindrance on your utility."

"Um…I do know the common yokai language, but I think I missed a few important words."

"Then just consider it cryptic nonsense and ponder over it until you get it."

"Well I think I got the bulk of the argument."

"Good. Then you can start with gourmet food for me."

"I'm afraid I don't see how that helps the people."

"If you keep me well fed and happy I'm much less inclined to go back to work."

"I'll see what I can do."

* * *

Sheila and Exa had arrived at Belcoast several hours before dawn and so had spent the night at the Flying Boar Inn. Exa had been thoroughly embarrassed when he asked for a room for two so late drawing looks from the few tavern customers that remained. Sheila's teasing had made it much worse as he had expected.

The inn itself was, in Sheila's own words, quaint and roughly what one could expect from a modestly sized city near the border. The furniture wasn't particularly expensive, and the chairs in the tavern appeared to have seen their fair share of brawls. The beds were neither soft nor hard but were at least free of infestations.

Despite how lively Sheila had seemed since she woke up she had fallen asleep almost immediately after arriving. Following her example Exa went to sleep, exhausted from carrying Sheila for hours.

The next morning after being given only a pair of eggs and some milk for a very late breakfast, Sheila had promptly flipped the table and demanded a meal more suitable for her.

So it was that the two spent the day on the town. First, Exa had bought Sheila some less eye drawing clothes and at her insistence a better hat. After that Sheila brought him to a restaurant that had caught her eye earlier.

Eventually, as the two were walking through the market Exa asked her to wait for him while he asked around for information. At first she refused to let him out of her sight thinking he'd run off alone but finally relented after getting him to promise he had no such intentions.

Thus Sheila came to be alone in the middle of the market and was approached by a man with two swords at his waist, long hair tied back, spiffy clothes and obvious intentions.

"I'm telling you. My love for you is undying. To me you are my heart's one guiding light. If beauty could kill, Maou himself should be destroyed by you with a single glance."

"What do I have to do to get you to go away?" Sheila asked.

"You should have to kill me my dear for leaving your presence should lead me to the very same fate."

"While I would ordinarily grant your request, my companion would disapprove. I'm afraid you'll simply have to suffer the torment of life without me."

"Oh what a cruel women you are to condemn me to my fate, but it is the hardest won victory that is the sweetest. Do not hate me so for I have at last known that passion which people call love. Please, if you shall not love me then at least _blegh_."

The man was knocked down from behind by a strong hit to the head.

Muttering he said, "Damn you mountain gorilla."

Behind him stood a young looking girl. Her long hair completely covered one of her eyes and her dress seemed a bit too much for the weather. She was carrying a staff with a large jewel on the end which marked her as a mage.

"I'm terribly sorry if he did anything to upset you," the girl said. "He's as stupid as his is a good swordsman."

"Don't worry about it," Sheila replied. "If you've fallen for such a guy you've got enough problems without accepting the burden for his actions."

Nearly in harmony, the girl and the man said, "I would never… this thing is…"

"It's fine. I've long since learned you're not supposed to question someone's interests."

At this point the girl was obviously throbbing with anger. Holding up her staff and chanting some nonsense she let loose a flurry of fireballs towards Sheila who stood unflinching as they landed at various locations around her.

"Your aim needs work," Sheila said with a bit of condescension.

"I was just trying to scare you. But if that isn't enough then…"

"Whoa! Wait up!"

Exa came running in through the crowd that had gathered up around the three. He was holding a small bag in one hand.

"Angelica. Don't fire off spells in public."

Sheila turned towards Exa and asked, "You know this girl?"

"And just who are you?" Angelic asked. "I'm a companion of the great hero Exa."

"Exa. If you let these people hang out with you it will ruin your reputation."

The man seeing Sheila acting so familiarly with Exa grabbed him and said, "How dare you steal the love of my life from me. I thought you were my friend but this betrayal…"

"What are you talking about?" Exa replied.

"The lovely woman just over there. See the way she looks at you. It's love. And you've taken her from me."

"Let's all just calm down," Exa said. "I don't know how this got started, but she likes to tease and if you get upset you lose. Why don't we go back to our room and talk this out."

"Our…room…" the man trailed off before regaining his bravado. "How dare you do such things to her! How far did you push her? Did you already spend the night together?"

"Of course not. We've just met."

"Don't tell me you've already defiled her with kisses."

Exa blushed a bit and averted his eyes.

"You bastard!" Turning to Sheila he continued, "What terrible things has he made you…You're looking away too!"

The man dropped Exa and collapsed.

"Defeated before I even had a chance," the man said softly. "No. Even if Exa already has a place in her heart I shall not give up. Even if I can only come second there is room for more than one."

The man got up and rushed over to Sheila and put his arm around her shoulder and took her hand in his.

"That said, how about we ditch these two and find a quiet place to bond?"

Sheila removed his arm and grabbed onto Exa's. Shock and heartbreak showed on the man's face. Angelica seemed upset as well although it didn't show as much if you didn't notice her hands squeezing her staff ever harder.

"Well, let's be heading out then," Exa said.

Exa led the group with Sheila still clinging to him. The man plodded along behind with Angelica who appeared to have regained her cool following.

* * *

The party arrived back at Exa's and Sheila's room at the Flying Boar Inn. They had a table and four chairs brought up from the tavern below and sat down around it. Sheila sat at one side with Angelic opposite here and Exa and her admirer filling in the gaps.

"I'm Angelica. Magical expert of the party."

"I'm Lakshri. Lightning bruiser. Fastest sword in the world."

"Queen Sheila."

Exa waited with his eyes closed for the moment to pass and the inevitable to occur.

"Queen of what?" Angelica asked with suspicion.

"All the yokai," Sheila replied.

Another moment passed.

"Maou?" Lakshri proposed.

"Don't call me that."

Angelica and Lakshri looked towards Exa who, feeling they were waiting for a word from him, said, "So she says."

A third moment passed after which the new pair broke into laughter. Sheila continued to munch the cookies Exa had given her on their way back unfazed. When they finished each looked to be in a better mood though a bit winded.

When the last of the giggles ended Exa said, "I rescued her from a dragon at the baron's castle and well…stuff happened so now she's coming with us."

"What kind of stuff?" Lakshri asked, glaring at Exa.

"We can talk about it later, but it's not what you're thinking. More importantly we need to figure out where we're going next."

"We're running low on funds," Angelica commented, "so I think we should head back to the capital to procure more. I for one don't want to live on bread crusts."

"How long do we have before we run out, gorilla?"

"With a fourth person probably about seven days if we keep costs down, lecher."

The two stared at each other out of the corners of their eyes. Exa thought he could actually see sparks flying from Angelica for a moment and hoped she wouldn't fire off spells indoors.

Meanwhile, as Sheila was eating her snack and not paying any attention, she felt the odd sensation that was Kagami squeezing the little fuzzball she had given him. After a moment, Sheila managed to create a solid connection with it.

_What do you want Kagami?_

_You said you didn't want any interruptions, so I thought I'd inform you a group of renegades is wandering around your area. That's all I had to say._

_That was surprisingly brief._

_I'm holding out hope you'll come back and do your work. And now I'll get back to mine._

Sheila felt Kagami drop the fuzzball and walk away with it hopping along behind. She then dropped the connection, feeling an odd mix of regret and relief to be rid of the feeling of being fuzzy and spherical.

_I should probably deal with them. I wouldn't want Exa to charge off on some stupid quest right now._

Sheila leaned back in her chair to stretch her back in preparation for some exercise. When she reached the extent of her stretch gravity went to work and removed her hat.

"Ah!" Angelica gasped.

Lakshri bit his lip.

"Idiot," Exa said to himself.

"No. It's okay," Lakshri encouraged himself before talking to Sheila. "My love endures. Something like this is nothing compared to my passion."

"I knew you didn't really have any interest in all the women that vied for your attention but to think it's because of this. You don't even know if you can mate with her. Do your morals derive from your fetishes too?"

Exa's entire face turned bright red. Sheila grabbed the table, nearly knocking over her drink, to avoid falling off her chair in a fit of laughter.

"You know, Angelica," Sheila started, picking up her hat as she got up. "I think I like you after all."

"What about me?" Lakshri asked.

"No."

"So cruel. But that frankness is good too."

Sheila walked to the door and as she was leaving said to Exa, "I've remembered something I wanted to do. I'll be back before night. Try not to get too lost in philosophy while I'm gone."

With that Sheila left the room, closing the door behind her and replacing the hat over her ears.

"What did she mean by that?" Lakshri asked. "And who exactly is she Exa?"

Angelica and Lakshri turned to Exa eager to hear about the self-proclaimed yokai queen.

"I don't really know that much about her. She's far smarter than I am and apparently much older as well though mum was the word on just how much older. If she can fight at all, she certainly hasn't shown any signs of it."

Folding her arms Angelica asked, "So no chance she's actually Maou then?"

"Do you really think something like that could be the creature in everyone's nightmares?"

"Well she didn't flinch at all when I fired on her."

"If she really is a lot older than us then she can probably spot such bluffs a mile away," Lakshri countered.

"That's not all, I'm pretty sure she saw my eye when the fireballs blew past me. She'd have to have a very keen eye to spot it."

"You were looking each other in the eyes," Lakshri added.

"Why are we even discussing this?" Exa asked.

"No one knows what Maou looks like, but you say you vaguely remember it had a human-like build. Now such a yokai happens to show up at the castle you were going to and is claiming to be Maou, and you just want to ignore it?"

"Rather than claiming to be Maou it seemed more like she was bitter about being tossed off her throne to me," Lakshri offered. "If anything she was a pure, good queen that was knocked off her throne by Maou. No doubt she was presumed dead but just barely managed to escape. Poor thing."

"Both of your imaginations are running out of control."

"Fine. I don't really think she's all that bad, but if she's telling the truth I get to tell both of you 'I told you so.'"

"Fair enough," both agreed.

"So what was she talking about?" Angelic asked.

"I don't know where she's going. Probably has something to do with food though since there's not much for entertainment in this town."

"Not that. What did she mean about getting lost in philosophy?"

"Oh, right."

* * *

At first Sheila figured she'd be able to just ignore the yokai group that was around, but it turned out to be far too close to Belcoast to ignore. It wouldn't take long for Sheila to get to them and get back. The allure of getting some more of those cookies motivated her to hurry before the market closed for the day. It took her about an hour in total to navigate the forest to where they made camp.

When she arrived her solution to the problem was as simple as it was efficacious. Because she was traveling with Exa she felt obligated to give a warning, but when it was ignored she left nothing but a smoking crater behind as she left less than a minute after arriving.

* * *

"So basically you're worried that what we're doing is ineffectual," Lakshri said. "And you're concerned that you'll have to become a Maou of the mind in order to see the world at a semblance of peace."

"That's silly Exa," said Angelica. "We've done plenty of good already. We even managed to get the prince on our side."

"The prince is not a good example of what we are trying to accomplish. Describe the prince before we met."

Angelica thought for a bit and said, "A bit spoiled but with a strong sense of responsibility."

"Idolized you to a point that bordered on obsession," Lakshri added.

"And when we let the yokai that attacked him go?" Exa asked.

"He felt horribly betrayed and was looking for any excuse for it to be a mistake. He stormed off when you said yokai are no different than humans, and you wouldn't kill either."

"Exactly, Angelica," said Exa. "Then not too long after he was attacked again by a larger group of yokai because he stabbed the eye of one of them: out for revenge the way most would be against their hated enemy. Then another one of the yokai we let go that time led them off his trail to repay our kindness. He _personally_ saw that and heard the reasons straight from them. The kind of respect he had for me didn't just disappear. Seeing the point I had made in so shocking a manner regalvanized his trust in me. That's not the kind of situation we can engineer for everyone in the world, human and yokai."

"Fine but what about the desert city?" Angelica asked.

"Humans tend to tolerate hanhinshu children so long as they stay out of sight. All we did was convince the mayor not to exile him to the desert," said Lakshri.

Angelica glared at Lakshri and asked, "Are you even trying to be helpful?"

"Just making a point. You more than anyone should know what it's like to have human and yokai blood."

"Before you two start fighting again, I think the point has been made. We can't keep preventing fights and solving problems and expect our work to ever end."

"So what shall we do then?" Asked Lakshri. "Our only real political ally is the little prince. The king shall probably fire us as soon as he gets word that we're not technically doing our job."

"On that point," Angelica began, "Exa was technically only hired to kill Maou so he can't be legitimately fired so long as he asks for information from everyone he lets go, which he has."

"I doubt the king shall care," countered Exa, fidgeting a bit in his chair.

"Fair enough."

"You did say it was Sheila who pushed you to think about this. You also said she was smart. Why not ask her opinion?"

"She's already given her opinion to me. I could probably get some more out of her but…it's kind of hard to put it. Sort of like she's pushing me to grow but trying not to influence the direction."

"Why?" Angelica asked and then added, "stop getting jealous you love-sick moron."

"I have no idea."

"You haven't even thought about it? That's odd behavior for anyone: Maou, dethroned queen, lover or random bystander. None really seems to get much out of it, except maybe a weird lover."

"Angelica, you'll never understand true love," Lakshri said. "When you love someone you accept them for whom they are and who they become."

"That's idiotic. If that were true you would be in love with everyone or no one since your lover could change to be anyone, in theory. Unless you're just focusing on appearances of course."

"Eh hem," Exa interrupted. "I'm sure I'm interrupting what would be yet another interesting debate between you two but can we stay on topic?"

"She started it," Lakshri sulked.

"…So, what was it that Sheila said to you?"

"'You need to figure out whom your real enemy is,'" Exa quoted. "Or something to that effect."

"Seems innocuous enough, but why have you been fidgeting for a while now?" Angelica asked.

Feeling a bit betrayed by himself, Exa wished he could hide his thoughts better.

"I don't think I can kill Maou," Exa said a bit sheepishly.

"Do you mean can't or won't?" Angelica asked.

"Won't."

"Alright. What did the person claiming to be Maou say to you?"

"It's not that Sheila said 'don't kill Maou'. She just forced me to see the contradiction in my morals."

"Contradiction?" Lakshri inquired.

"I know you weren't brought on board for your brains but are you really that dumb?" Angelica responded.

"What did you say!"

"Exa goes around asking people to put their grievances aside and forgive. If Exa is responsible for the death of Maou, no matter how much he's praised, there will always be part of him knowing it was personal, not justice."

"So if he can't forgive he can't expect anyone else to and if he does he shall have lost any reason to kill Maou."

"Not quite. If Maou was a cruel sadistic person who only found joy in murder then the easiest solution would still be to kill it, even after letting go of his revenge. There may be additional moral constraints on that, but it should be saved for another conversation. However, that kind of person is rather rare. More likely, the only real difference between Maou and a soldier is Maou has seen too much death and is a lot stronger, making it much more public. If so then we find ourselves justifying the execution of every soldier. There's plenty of other possibilities, but these two are the characterizing ones."

"That's exactly it. I have to be able to let go of my revenge. No matter how hard it is."

"'Do as I say and not as I do,'" Lakshri recited the standard proverb.

"No. I can't do that. The world should not, can not be changed by such shallow words. I know I have yet to forgive. If I must destroy myself to do so, I shall. The world shall have its hero, and when the time comes for justice I shall be sure it is that. Maou may be our enemy, but it is not _the_ enemy."

"Then who is?" Angelic asked.

"The world. The hearts and minds of everyone in it."

Lakshri started to clap once Exa had clearly finished.

"Nice speech," Lakshri said. "You should remember it word for word so historians get it right later."

"Thanks," said Exa. "I've actually been practicing my public speaking for a while now."

"It's certainly paying off for you."

"We should save the speeches for the public where they belong," said Angelica. "Now as for what to do with Maou. You seem to already have an opinion so we'll leave that to you. We still haven't answered the main problem."

"Actually, I think we should still find Maou first," said Lakshri. "Even if we have to dethrone Maou to do it, we'll never have peace if we can't get the yokai to cease hostilities as well. To do so we'll need to get in contact with the yokai government, wherever it is."

"Lakshri, you've said something intelligent for once."

"Can you two go five minutes without throwing insults at each other?"

"That _would_ improve your efficiency," said Sheila coming in through the door.

"When did you get back?" Angelica asked.

"Just now, why?"

"Just concerned since it was getting a bit dark out," Angelica said. S_he left before I set up the barrier but she came back in without me even noticing. It's not that difficult but normal people wouldn't be able to do that._ "What's that you have there?"

Angelica was pointing to a small bag Sheila was carrying with her. She also had a slightly smaller, empty bag with it that she had used for cookies earlier.

"More cookies. They were so good, I just had to get more on my way back from the restaurant."

"Sheila…We don't have enough money to eat like we did earlier every meal," Exa got up and took the bag of cookies from her.

"Ah! My cookies."

"You can eat them tomorrow. You're going to eat us into poverty at this rate."

"But maybe that's my plan. I'll eat you're wallet to nothing and let you starve to death. Wha ha ha!"

Sheila's attempt at a maniacal laugh fell quite short of the full booming quality expected of a good villain.

"No one will want you to be their villain with a laugh like that," commented Exa. "It's about standards."

"How nostalgic. An old friend of mine always told me to work on my presentation."

"Still needs work," said Angelica.

"Well, I never actually did. Just kept slipping my mind. So how far did you get?" Sheila asked, taking her seat.

"We actually just finished. It is getting late, so it's time for us to go to our room for some girl talk."

"What? I'm staying with Exa."

"No way. I'm not staying in the same room as that thing," Angelica said pointing towards Lakshri, "and besides that it's normal for the boys and the girls to split up."

"I don't care about that."

"But I do so come on."

"No!" Sheila screamed as Angelica dragged her out the door and down the hall.

Exa and Lakshri stood feeling a bit abandoned in the room.

"Huh."

"I thought Angelica didn't like Sheila," Lakshri said.

"Maybe she's just glad to have another girl in the group."

"I think you mean the first girl."

Exa collapsed onto the bed and sighed.

"Can't you at least let up when you're in separate rooms?"

"I don't think I have it in me."

"How about if I let you have one of the cookies Sheila was eating?"

"Angelica is such a good girl. So polite and knowledgeable."

"Better."

* * *

Angelica drug Sheila through the hotel's hallways with Sheila complaining the whole way. Occasionally Sheila's struggling would cause her to thrash into tables which held flowers in no doubt worthless vases that would be purported as ancient and beyond price if broken. Angelica, ever aware, caught them as they fell with magic and rearranged the entire setup the way it started without even looking back. A bit impressed Sheila began to purposefully knock things over until Angelica threw her into their room and closed the door behind her.

The first thing Angelica did was set up her usual spells to prevent Lakshri from entering or otherwise bothering her. More from force of habit than any real need at the moment.

Next came the important spells. Spells to prevent _anyone_ from coming in, eavesdropping, sitting around invisibly, and all sorts of other precautions. She normally would have forgone the staff as it actually inhibited her magic, but she was eager to test if Sheila had really seen her right eye earlier, the curious biological oddity that marked her as a hanhinshu and consequently a proficient mage.

Angelica turned to face Sheila and saw that Sheila was sitting on a bed poorly pretending she wasn't thinking rude thoughts.

"What's that look all about?"

"Nothing. It has just been a while since anyone thought a conversation with me warranted such privacy."

"Oh, is that all?" Angelica answered skeptically.

"Well, you may have missed a spell or two. Not that they _really_ matter. What are the chances that they would be important, right? I suppose you could be intending to kill me. But if so you picked the entirely wrong set of wards."

Angelica flushed red. She hadn't actually thought they were important spells in the standard privacy list, and she didn't want to give her skill away by using her own personal spells. However it was still embarrassing to have it pointed out.

Turning away, Angelica said, "I see you have some familiarity with magic."

"I was trained…well trained isn't exactly the right word. I was drilled by the undying mage itself."

"Never heard of her. Doesn't sound so undying."

"Not dead, just gone to who knows where. Perhaps you know her by a different name. Celis of the Wind Brigade perhaps? The one in all the fairy tales."

The name was indeed familiar to Angelica though she couldn't remember any fairy tales about her. By the time Celis had faded to legend she had been far too old for bedtime stories.

"The girl traveling with three other companions right?"

Sheila laughed and fell on her back.

"That was so easy to find out how old you are. You must be at least twice Exa's age."

Caught off guard, Angelica stammered, "W-what are you talking about?"

"There haven't been stories about Celis in decades and they were certainly never fairy tales."

"What a bluff. Celis is still a favorite bedtime story for children."

"Then certainly Exa must know some stories being the way he is. Mind if I go check real quick?"

Sheila motioned to get up, but Angelica pushed her back down. Angelica had planned to be the one prying information out of Sheila, not the other way around. The upset was making her forget everything she was going to use against Sheila but then the obvious thought came back to her.

"Fine, you win. But why did you suspect my age anyways?"

"You didn't act like a teenage girl in a love-hate relationship with Lakshri and…"

"Who said I was in love with that brute!" Angelica interrupted in a way that might have been cute if she had been blushing and didn't have flames swirling around her hands.

"I never said it was romantic. Did I accidentally hit gold?"

Sheila laughed for a bit and poked Angelica a bit as she pouted.

"Anyways, you hanhinshu rarely have a life span matching a human's, so it was a pretty obvious guess to assume it was longer."

Sheila uncaringly finished her sentence as Angelica pounced on her, casting her staff to the ground, preparing numerous spells to strike Sheila with at the first sign of danger.

"So you did see my eye earlier. I shall have you tell me who you are, or you shall be a pile of dust in mere moments."

"I've already told you. I am Queen Sheila, ruler of all the yokai. I wonder why no one believes me."

"I will be the first. And so there's no reason for me to not kill you here and now."

Angelica released her spells and stared in shock as they fizzled off of magical shields instantaneously raised by Sheila and dropped just as quickly almost as if they had simply been a trick of the light.

"Please," Sheila snidely dismissed Angelica's efforts.

"But…how…you didn't even…" Angelic muttered in disbelief.

"I told you I was trained by Celis the Undying Mage. It's obvious I'd know a trick or two. What with the title "undying" you'd think her defenses would be top notch."

At that point the weight of what Sheila had told her really sunk in. Celis had been unstoppable on the field of battle. The first few armies that tried to ignore her and fight each other anyways quickly learned that it would be better to let their hatred fester until Celis was a hundred leagues away and busy with someone else. For good measure, they tended to wait until night and tried to fight very quietly as well.

"No. Just don't. You're smart enough to not show such fear. If I was going to kill you _now,_ I would have done it earlier."

A moment passed and then Sheila added smiling, "But no promises on your future prospects. Especially if you keep pinning me with your knee like that. It kind of hurts and I'm not into that.

Angelica soon realized that she was pinning a temporarily benevolent warrior queen with all the strength she had and quickly rethought the benefits of doing so. Thinking back later she swore she would have died on the spot if Lakshri had managed to see her in such a suggestive pose with Sheila.

Angelica spent then next few minutes in awkward silence under Sheila's gaze. She had technically achieved her initial goal to figure out whom Sheila was, or at least felt reasonably confidant in it. Angelica wasn't the kind of person to ever let go of doubt completely.

However, at this point she didn't know what to do. She had tried _really_ hard to at least wound Sheila and to do any better in such a closed area would cause a lot of collateral damage, not that she expected to do any better.

Angelica, still lost for what to do, found her mind wandering on relatively trivial things like being impressed with how long Sheila was comfortable holding a silence instead of her spellcasting ability or her being Maou.

At last, while not particularly impressed with what she came up with, Angelica posed the question, "So why were you with Exa?"

"It was love at first sight. The gaps between his childish ideas, his rugged manliness and how old he acts is just fantastic."

Angelica joined hands with Sheila, interlocking their fingers, and excitedly said, "You understand. But don't try to sell me that. Why are you really here?"

"Vacation?"

"Don't believe it."

"Free food?"

"That's just lazy."

"Fine. I heard there was a fetching beauty traveling with the hero and I was and am enticed."

Sheila moved in to kiss Angelica who hurriedly backed away.

"That was the worst one yet."

"Maybe I'm just bored."

"You do seem frivolous, but from what Exa's told us you think too much to do things without purpose."

"Can't I enjoy chaos for its own sake?"

"The prior probability is too low for me to stake any faith in that claim."

"If you won't believe anything without evidence then perhaps you're not asking a useful question."

"You…have a point."

"So what now?"

Angelica settled down on the edge of the bed and ruminated on that.

_What _should_ I do now? If Sheila lucked out on her spells she certainly sold it well enough that I won't try it again. At least not alone. On the other hand, I suppose you don't destroy half the human population and a bunch of heroes without being over-the-top strong._

_Wait. I've volunteered to sleep in the same room as a mass murderer. What if she… No. If she wanted to kill me there shouldn't be any reason for her to wait until I'm asleep. I should probably go talk to Exa and Lakshri. No, that's not a good idea. If I actually managed to convince him I don't know how out of control Exa will get. I need to wait until we're not around civilians._

Angelica turned to look at Sheila sprawled out on the bed rolling around a bit to wrap the covers around her. Angelica noted that it did seem a bit cold for the season tonight, but Sheila seemed to be taking it a bit too far.

_Even if it was at Sheila's instigation, Exa does need to learn to forgive. It probably won't be that hard if she acts like this all the time._

"Will you answer some questions about yourself?"

"I don't see why not."

"The stories all say Maou has killed over half of the human population. They also say some more ludicrous things like Maou is a forty story titan and eats the souls of the dead. How much of it is really true?"

Sheila smiled just enough to show off her slightly longer than usual canine teeth and replied, "I looked into the whole eating souls thing. If I went through with that diet I should be a pile of bones in the ground somewhere now."

"I can't help but feel you've avoided the question entirely."

"Do you even know how _long_ it would take for one person to kill that many people? I can't give an exact percentage, but the figure is indeed highly exaggerated. Once Kagami got the army running my work was more or less reduced to keeping the nobles in line."

"Who's Kagami?"

"Essentially my Grand Vizier."

"So in other words you're not really a queen."

"More like I'm forcing him to take care of all the administration. Ruling got really tedious after a while. It's all paperwork and formalities. I used to go on adventures and had climatic showdowns with powerful opponents. Sigh. Those were good times."

"Er…right. Good times. Why not go back to them?"

"There's no one that can fight me one-on-one anymore here."

_I really hope she didn't engage in genocide just to get more opponents._

"Do you remember destroying a village called Altessa?"

"Not particularly. Any defining characteristics to it?"

"You would have fought a boy and the first hero there."

"Oh. That would be Exa's hometown then. I do remember that. I was particularly on my A-game for taunting that day."

"So you know how much Exa must hate you and yet you're traveling with him."

"If you're asking me to apologize forget it. It's sad he lost his family but I don't regret my actions."

"I don't understand you at all."

"If I was that easy to understand I wouldn't be very interesting now would I?"

* * *

"Back already?" Exa asked as Lakshri walked into their room without looking up from the book he was reading. "It's only been an hour."

"Angelica set up so many barriers against me when I tried to get to their room I ended up in a lake half a league out of town."

"Sounds like she's being nice today. She must really be happy to have Sheila in the group."


	2. Prologue - Part Two

This fan fiction doesn't exist. You've never heard of it. If someone wishes to discuss it with you, please gently suggest that hallucinations are a serious medical problem.

Superior and Superior Cross are originally written by Ichtys and published under Square Enix in _Gangan Powered _and_ Monthly GFantasy_. Please support the official release where available.

* * *

"The semblance of insanity is part of the act. The fun part is pretending to be sane."

* * *

Nearly a fortnight had passed since Exa and Sheila had met up with Angelica and Lakshri in Belcoast. Since then they had traveled from city to city on their way towards the capital.

In the end they had decided that with their funds running low the best choice was to procure some more. They usually would have headed to an imperial bank, but they intended to follow Sheila's advice and buy a means of transportation faster than walking. It would cost them quite a sum and would require approval from the king.

At least Exa felt it did. The king himself probably would never have noticed or cared.

While they were traveling on roads devoid of travelers, Angelica tried several ways to convince Exa and Lakshri that Sheila was, in fact, the yokai queen. At each failure Sheila enjoyed a little laugh that irritated Angelica to no end.

Eventually she had simply tried attacking Sheila to show the two of them how strong her defense was, but Exa managed to get in her way. Afterward he essentially put her in time out. It had been the most humiliating Angelica had ever suffered through in her life.

Sheila, on the other hand, enjoyed the travels and had a lot of fun playing games with everyone while they walked. They of course referring to Exa and Lakshri. Sheila forced Exa to carry her on his back and Angelica wasn't the kind of magician to ignore what simple magic could do. She drifted along lazily when not flustering around claiming Sheila was Maou.

At each city they visited Sheila somehow managed to procure money to dine on the most lavish foods available. When pressed she had sworn that the funds were obtained through legitimate means. Angelica frowned on what legitimate means the queen of an enemy nation would use but the other two showed no concerns.

Each night Angelica would drag Sheila away from Exa and spend time conversing with her until they went to bed. It was beginning to disturb her how little concern she had sleeping within ten leagues of Sheila, let alone the same bed when there were no double rooms available. She also made sure to stamp out the part of her that was glad she never studied pocket dimension magic.

So their time passed until arriving at Palopera, a city not four days journey to the human capital by foot.

* * *

Palopera was one of the biggest cities in the human empire. As such, it was also one of the most expensive cities for tourists to idle about in. The group usually would have ignored the city and camped outside but at Sheila's insistence that avoiding large towns is the best way to miss important information they begrudgingly agreed to spend the night there.

With Exa's authority they entered the city post haste skipping over all the usual checks that would have revealed Sheila as a yokai and Angelica as a hanhinshu. As they passed through the gate, Angelica felt the prick that the yokai barrier dealt her every time she passed through one protecting a major city.

The first time she went through one it had been so alarming she had gotten Exa in trouble but had since gotten used to them. Being inside the barrier wasn't nearly as painful but did tend to disturb her sleep.

Being pure humans, both Exa and Lakshri never had a clue when they passed through the barriers. So as soon as she was sure that no pedestrian would be paying attention, Angelica was going to mention that Sheila made it through the barrier on her own just fine.

However right before she did Sheila spoke first, asking, "Hey Exa. How come no one ever recognizes you in these cities?"

"I have no idea. I'm not the hero for the fame, but it does hurt a bit."

"Our Exa is like a mysterious savior," Lakshri said. "You never know where he is, but when you need him he appears from the shadows to make everything right."

"How are you ever going to spread your beliefs around if no one knows anything about you?" Sheila asked, showing genuine surprise at Exa's low notoriety.

Exa stopped and leaned against a nearby wall. His depression almost emanated from him in a dark aura.

"It's true. I'm a failure."

"It's okay Exa. I'm sure people will know whom you are before long. You just need to save one of the larger cities."

"Thanks Lakshri. But the large cities haven't needed saving for good reasons."

"You're biggest problem is you don't act anything like a hero," Sheila advised. "People expect certain things when they think of a hero and if you don't deliver it makes it harder for word to spread. If you rode off into sunsets and caused a bunch of collateral damage your situation would probably improve. Don't worry about the damage. After all, you do have hero insurance. Or perhaps some sort of marketing campaign."

"Now that's a good idea Sheila. You could be an idol too Exa," Lakshri said, slapping Exa on the back. "You'd have hordes of fans ready to follow your every word, spreading peace everywhere."

"A mob spreading peace doesn't sound like peace to me."

"Don't fret the fine details. If a generation grows up in peace under the little prince's rule things will get a lot better."

Exa rubbed his beardless chin in contemplation. A thoughtful look came into his eyes.

Angelica shook her head in disgust and said, "I can't believe you two are taking this idea seriously."

Looking around Angelica noticed Sheila had wandered off.

Taking the opportunity she said, "Hey. There's something I need to tell you about Sheila."

"Huh," Both Exa and Lakshri looked up at the same time drawn out of their thoughts and noticed Sheila was gone.

"Where'd Sheila go?" Lakshri asked.

"Seriously. She's like a child. We can't take our eyes off of her for a second."

"Ah," Lakshri pointed towards a diner a distance ahead of them. "Sheila just entered that building. Quickly, before she orders anything."

"Wait. What about…"

"We'll listen to your rant later Angelica," Lakshri called back as Exa and him ran off.

Angelica, left alone on the streets muttered to herself dejectedly, "I'm still on this team, right?"

* * *

"We were too late," Exa said, face down on the table in defeat.

"True," Lakshri, who was similarly lying face down next to Exa, agreed. "At least Sheila wasn't expecting us to pay for her this time. We can barely afford to eat ourselves."

"Would you mind sharing with us Sheila?" Exa asked.

"What? Did you even think before you asked that?" Sheila replied. "What do you think would happen if anyone found out that the great queen of the yokai provided financial assistance to the hero and his friends?"

"A loan then?" Lakshri asked. "People respect the evils of a cruel banker."

"No way. Although if you're interesting in becoming my vassals, I'd hire you in a heartbeat."

"What do you think?" Exa asked.

"The dead do no good," Lakshri replied.

"Should we accept her offer?"

A load growl came from Lakshri's stomach.

"I think I agree," Exa said.

"There's a bank five blocks into town from here!" Angelica yelled at her companions.

* * *

For the rest of the day, Exa and Lakshri stood in line at the imperial bank while Angelica was given the task of keeping track of Sheila as she wandered through town. One might ask how this came about.

Angelica and Sheila both wanted to be with Exa, each for their own reasons. However, Exa had to be the one to make the withdraw and Sheila did not have the patience to stand in line for several hours when a broad city lay before her unexplored. Everyone else in the group wanted Sheila to have a guardian. Exa was, or course, out. Lakshri alone was rejected by Exa and Angelica and Lakshri both refused to travel together without Exa as a buffer. This meant Angelica was to act as guardian alone, much to her chagrin.

So the two of them went about town partaking of all the free entertainment they could find and had time for. Angelica didn't keep up with the holidays in the empire, but it seemed that Palopera may have recently finished a festival as there were an unusually large number of bards in town.

One, who fulfilled almost all of Angelica's requirements to label as an old coot, told the story _Hailes and the Dragon_. Angelica vaguely recalled that Hailes was one of the four Wind Brigade members.

After the story, Sheila had given the old bard a generous sum of money and had several drinks with him. Angelica pulled them apart when Sheila was drunk enough to start flirting with him and soon after her as well. As they left the tavern Angelica did feel a bit happy that old stories of human-yokai friendship managed to survive, even if it was just in the ramblings of old men.

Mentioning this to Sheila she had replied, with a heavy slur, "That's sa commen mistake peoples make. Ye see, Hailes wasen akchally human. Celis wasn a han… han… a haf breed either. Tha other twos as well. They shapeshiftin but Hailes wa they only one tha couldn. Don't mean they was yokais either. Afer you learn, wassit? Big, bia, bio. Yeah. Biology. A lessen in biology…shapeshiffen makes your origenal race matter little. Those two, think they were human."

To which Angelica replied only with, "Interesting."

Much to Angelica's surprise an hour later and Sheila was up and running around as if she hadn't guzzled enough alcohol to kill a grown man. Angelica thought it would have been too good for Sheila to drink herself to death, but she had still hoped. On the up side, she wouldn't have to explain herself to Exa later.

At dusk the group reunited and Sheila directed them to one of the upper-class luxury resorts with natural hot springs.

Angelica shook her head. _Exa is a pushover and Lakshri is so blindly in love, well, at least in lust, with Sheila that he'll do whatever she asks. We really shouldn't be spending like this. Not that anyone cares about my opinion lately._

Even so Angelica followed them inside and they got two rooms as usual. Exhausted, Angelica took advantage of the opportunity and headed straight for the hot springs. Some relaxing time later Sheila joined her after Exa and Lakshri had left for the male springs which were _not_ located next to the women's behind a thin wall.

Neither Angelica nor Sheila were in the mood to talk and especially not with several other women in the baths with them.

Tiring of the heat quickly, Sheila bathed quickly and left, telling Angelica she was going to go for a walk. Angelica left soon after. Trying her best to follow Sheila on her walk, Angelica found herself walking out of the city and into the surrounding forest some ways off.

* * *

Following Sheila no longer felt like a good idea to Angelica as she was hit by yet another branch creating another cut on her skin. She had no idea how Sheila was managing to walk through the forest without a light source when the moon was barely shinning down with enough strength to see five steps ahead. Angelica had only gotten this far because Sheila herself was creating enough noise rustling through the leaves for a deaf man to track her.

Holding her mounting temper in check, Angelica didn't fill the wood with magical light, heal her injuries and mow down a new road and instead kept trudging through the woods as quietly as possible.

Eventually, Angelica saw a few wisps of light in front of her and a clearing appeared to the sound of several deafening thunderclaps. Signs not unlike the arrival of a dragon Angelica suspected. A constant cracking sound came from the direction of the new clearing which made it impossible for her to hear anything else from where she was.

_Perfect._

Angelica ventured a bit into the clearing. With plenty of rubble to hide her, she was able to hear everything. Although, with Sheila's apparently spectacular night vision she didn't dare chance viewing the scene.

A sound Angelica had never heard before occurred. It sounded almost like wet noodles flittering through the air and smacking on the ground to the accompanying cracking of half broken foliage.

"You've come to pick me up personally. How kind." Sheila said.

"Part of what the nobles fear about you is how little they know you. It would be bad form to send some random thug to pick you up and spread your appearance around later in his bragging."

"I figured you would have taken the chance to claim I was your mistress."

"Every unwanted rumor is a bad rumor milady."

"Thrice rejected in a single day. I'm hurt."

"Thrice?"

"Two of the people I was traveling with rejected my job offer."

_Crap!_

Angelica bolted out of her hiding place as fast as her magic would carry her in the general direction of the city.

"Kagami. You brought what I asked for right?"

"I don't really get why you want it right now."

"Just give me my hat."

Kagami handed over Sheila's hat. A rather strange design, it was everything Sheila had claimed it to be: big, impressive, fancy, intimidating. Rather then put it on, Sheila reached her hand deep into it. Far deeper than the hat was. From it she withdrew a comically oversized hammer labeled AMGM along the shaft.

"What…is that?" Kagami asked.

Putting her hat on, Sheila replied, "It was a gift. And now it will be again."

Sheila took off through the forest even faster than Angelica and caught up with her before she even managed to get half way back.

"Angelica."

Hearing Sheila right behind her she turned and placed her shields' full strength in Sheila's direction.

_If she really doesn't intend to kill me I might have a chance to escape to the city if I can hit her._

"Hold your breath," Sheila said pulling back her hammer as she landed in front of Angelica.

Angelica moved to dodge out of the way, but close combat had never been her specialty.

"And warm yourself with magic," Sheila finished.

Angelica got a bad feeling about Sheila's weapon. A magical aura oozed from it with magic she had never encountered before.

"See you soon."

Sheila swung her hammer and connected squarely on Angelica's torso completely shattering every shield she had raised. Angelica was surprised to find both that the impact did not hurt and that she was now speeding away high in the sky with it growing colder and colder quickly. The hammer flew with her as if mocking her.

Back on the ground Sheila watched as Angelica faded into the distance until she twinkled.

"Celis really does nice work. It's all the little details that really make it shine. I almost feel bad giving that away as a signing bonus."

Not too far off Sheila could hear Kagami approach out of breath.

"What… was… that…" Kagami gasped between breaths.

"It was a gift. Just like I said."

"Well then… what happened to her…"

"I sent her in the general direction of the castle. I imagine we can beat her there by dragon if we hurry."

Sheila backtracked towards where they had left the dragon behind. As she walked by Kagami she was about to put her hand on his shoulder but stopped short thinking better of it and continued on with Kagami trailing behind.

"That girl, was human wasn't she?"

"She's a hanhinshu Kagami. What's your point?"

"She can't be trusted. Why would you send her to the palace alone?"

"She's not alone. I did give her the hammer. Once it finishes registering her as its current master she won't be able to figure out how to get rid of it until I tell her. As its owner I can find it wherever it goes."

"But…why? I don't understand what you're thinking."

"I'm changing the rules of the game Kagami."

"What! We're winning. Easily! Why would you change that?"

"Why indeed?"

Sheila followed her rhetorical question with the kind of evil laughter Exa would have approved of in a villain.

* * *

Exa and Lakshri woke up the next morning and went down to the hotel's cafe for breakfast. They hadn't seen the girls since they checked in yesterday and both were a bit nervous about how many luxury services Sheila talked Angelica into getting from the hotel. Exa had looked over what they offered and the lack of readily available prices for each made him worry they were intended for the kind of people that never noticed price tags to begin with.

After eating Lakshri volunteered to go check on Angelica and Sheila while Exa paid the bill for their stay. Exa consented, and Lakshri left to hike through the massive hotel to their room which they had both requested be as high as possible.

Traveling down the posh corridors Lakshri was a bit surprised to find himself actually arriving at his destination. Angelica usually did remove her wards against him the next morning, but sometimes she overslept.

With no one answering to his knock and finding the door unlocked Lakshri entered the room. Neither Angelica nor Sheila was there, presumably already out and on the town doing who knows what. He was about to leave when he noticed an envelope standing on the table with Exa written on it. It wasn't sealed so he opened it up and started reading.

Halfway through Lakshri dashed out of the room, down the hall and leapt down the stairs flight by flight all while finishing the letter. When he ran past Exa waiting in the lobby he shoved the letter and envelope into his hands.

As soon as he got outside, Lakshri shouted, "You damn gorilla! How dare you steal Sheila from me!?"

He then ran off towards the nearest city gates fuming the whole way.

Recovering from his stupefaction, Exa began reading the letter.

_Dear Exa_

_Angelica and I can no longer hide our feelings._

_We've run off together in the night. Don't bother looking for us._

_We'll meet you at the capital in a couple of weeks if all goes well._

_Don't worry about your wallet either, we didn't touch it._

_Sheila_

_P.S. I don't think Angelica will mind if you fall for me._

_P.P.S. The job offer has expired._

_P.P.P.S. There's an old bard in town by the name of Emch. If you feel lonely without us, he's pretty fun._

_(Scribbled sideways in the margin) P.P.P.P.S. I opened a tab yesterday at Lucy's Teas and Pastries. Please take care of it for me._

"This has got to be a joke," Exa said.

Exa walked out of the hotel and unsurprisingly found Lakshri already long out of sight. Knowing that at least the last part was true he headed towards the market to find Lucy's Teas and Pastries.

* * *

Despite Sheila's warnings, Angelica's wild flight had been rather comfortable. Relatively speaking. A bit chilly when she passed through clouds but on the whole pretty nice. Mid-flight the hammer had disappeared although she had some weird sensation of it still being around she couldn't explain.

Angelica was usually pretty good with heights and but seeing clouds below her combined with fast, frequent, random rotations from wind eventually got to her and caused her to vomit more than once on her multi-hour journey. A few times enough blood rushed to her head that she lost vision and occasionally consciousness for a moment. Or at least she guessed it was for mere moments. Trees all pretty much looked the same from her height and the only other landmarks to judge distance by were far off mountains that never seemed any nearer.

Eventually, she landed rather delicately in some anonymous foothills, completely lost, far removed from the mountains proper but with an occasional peak that reached several hundred feet above the surrounding landscape.

"So, I'm totally lost in what I think is the yokai kingdom. I was sent here by a _hammer_ of extremely dubious properties and Sheila's probably headed this way by dragon. Seems pretty much as hopeless as it did in flight."

Angelica examined her surroundings, in particular scanning the sky. In the distance, she could see what she assumed to be a dragon, not doubt the one Sheila was riding.

"And there she is, right on time. Fantastic."

Angelica began the usual motions to hide herself but quit halfway through.

"Damn it!" Angelica screamed.

The sheer force of her rage discharged the buildup of magic in her as a crater nearby in the landscape.

"Stupid Exa. Why wouldn't you believe me!? She was even saying it herself!"

Another crater opened up throwing dirt everywhere including on Angelica.

"It shouldn't be like this…"

Angelica removed the dirt from herself and sat down.

"And now here I am. Hopelessly outmatched. Alone. Miserable. Hastily and halfway dressed…Summon Clothes!"

The garments Angelica was wearing since she chased after Sheila the night before disintegrated into dust and new ones took their place from the dirt below forming the elaborate frilled and laced clothing she was fond of.

_All right. _Angelica thought, slapping her cheeks with both hands. _If I can at least find that hammer, I might have a chance to fight my way out._

Angelica tried a series of progressively wilder attempts to find the hammer. A few times she managed to feel, at least that was the best way she could put it, the hammer next to her but yet nowhere. Unfortunately, every time she got so far she would be repelled, physically or magically. Often her raw magic would be returned and the force given no apparent direction would cause random effects around her. The garden of flowers and the chickens were alright, but when the first anvil fell not far from her she conceded defeat.

When the dragon flew by overhead Sheila jumped off it and landed impressively in front of Angelica.

"What? No applause?" Sheila asked. "Fine. I'll show you to the castle then."

Sheila turned towards the only nearby mountain about half a league away but then turned back and said, "A friendly warning. You're here under my protection, but I'm sure everyone will be looking for an excuse to kill you. Hanhinshu are even less popular amongst yokai than humans."

"As if you could drop below a zero approval rating."

* * *

Arriving at mountain, Sheila had guided Angelica towards a cave hidden among a great deal of shrubbery. When questioned if this was the only entrance Sheila had replied that it was, in fact, an entrance only used by Sheila and now Angelica. Most would be in trouble if any of the traps was accidentally sprung, but Sheila told Angelica she was magically skilled enough to survive anything that came at her.

The cave was small but not cramped although the entire trail was uneven and stalactites occasionally drooped low enough to hit even even Angelica's short stature.

"Be sure that your foot is just like this," Sheila said pointing to her own foot, "or you'll spring a slew of arrow traps."

"Is there any particular reason we can't just set them all off and forget about it?"

"You can if you want, but you shall be the one to reset them. It could take you hours, days even."

"Fine. Why are we taking this route anyways?"

"I've ordered this passage never to be guarded so we can always ignore the red tape when coming and going."

"Guards stop you?"

"It's the point of the matter that they don't. Besides, what good is a guard if it lets every polymorphed impostor in without question?"

"Can't I just float through this?"

"Wait. Grab that lever there as you step on that stone. No. The traps are magically triggered. If you try to bypass them like that, they spring at just the right time to make your life a mess. Well, mess for you mostly means hours of mechanical work but still."

_It's a strange feeling having the evil overlord praise your strength._

"You are remembering all this right?" Sheila asked.

"Of course not. This tunnel has a greater trap density than Aldwyn has population density."

Sheila looked disappointed as if Angelica had been trying to hide a failing exam grade.

"Huh," Sheila sighed with resignation, "What am I going to do with you?"

"I'm not your daughter!"

"Yeah…" Sheila said, gazing down a bit.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Angelica bellowed, lunging forward.

_Click!_ An instant later Angelica was falling into a pit with glowing green liquid pouring in after her.

* * *

Exa had found Lakshri rampaging around outside the city looking for clues towards the girls' location. Having had no luck asking travelers and having found no trail, Exa had managed to drag Lakshri back into the city, and they sat down together for lunch.

"I'm surprised that either of them would do something this rash," Exa said.

"Just wait until I get my hands on you Angelica. I'll beat you into next year."

"Lakshri, calm down. It's not our place to question their love."

"Why are you so calm? Sheila was literally attached to you at the waist half the time. You can't not pick up on that, and you never rejected her." Lakshri quickly added, "That doesn't mean I'm giving her to you."

"Really if I were you I'd be worrying about the alternatives."

Lakshri released his glass from a near fatal grip and stared quizzically at Exa.

"First we could assume everything in this letter is true, and they ran off to… do certain things. If Sheila did write it, which seems to be true considering the handwriting, the style and the final post script, then it probably doesn't mean exactly what the obvious conclusion is. If you really haven't picked up on it yet she's the kind of person that would come back two weeks later and laugh until she died from hearing about your antics."

"I guess that makes sense," Lakshri conceded.

"Although I don't think it likely but suppose only one of them left."

"What do you mean?"

"Well if Sheila is, in fact, Maou."

"How can you think that?"

"I just said if. _If_ she is then perhaps she killed, or otherwise subdued, Angelica but for some reason left without finishing us off. It's possible she only saw Angelica as a threat and not us."

"That's a terrible theory, and you should be ashamed of thinking of it."

"Actually I thought of the opposite first. I just didn't want to mention it because you'd take it too seriously."

"You mean that Angelica killed Sheila?"

"She has been obsessing over her. I expected that spending time alone together would eventually mellow her out, but it could have had the opposite effect."

"That sounds so plausible compared to anything else. I'll track down that girl and finish her off."

"Lakshri."

"I know. Calm down. Fine. I'm calm."

"If that were true then why would Sheila write this letter? She was smart so maybe there's some kind of code in it regardless of it being a forced will or not."

"So do you have any ideas what it could be?"

"Not at all. But at Aldwyn we could ask the king to lend us René for a bit."

"I'd rather not talk to René ever again after the windmill of death."

"We could request to see him outside his lab."

"Sigh… Off to the capital then?"

"Indeed. And this will probably be nothing anyways so we'll just meet them there and welcome them back."

* * *

A couple hours of trap instruction later and Angelica had reset everything she had triggered.

"I hope you've learned your lesson about anger. Better now than in the middle of a scheme I guess."

"Can't you just turn these all off when you walk by."

"Yes."

"Then why haven't you?"

"I'm not going to tell you how so what if you want to use this tunnel alone? That's why I asked if you were memorizing it."

"I think I'll manage without."

"Nonsense. We continue as is."

* * *

After emerging from the tunnel, Angelica found herself in an ornate hallway which was rather crudely joined the the cave.

"This is the palace?" Angelica asked skeptically.

"The lower levels of it. If you go upstairs, you can leave the building and enter a large cavern. It's all rather impressive, and we use foxfire to light it up. Just the cavern mind. Foxfire isn't really practical, but it has the correct ambiance for caves. Having fungal growth in walls is never a good idea."

Sheila led Angelica down a couple halls to a spiraling stairway.

"This will take you straight up to the throne room. More importantly if you head up and take a left you can follow the hall to the kitchen. I'd imagine you'll be eating with me most of the time but if you get hungry feel free to take whatever."

The two backtracked mostly back to the tunnel hallway but then took a staircase down a flight that led to a short hallway with one door not far from the stairs. Opening said door Sheila revealed a rather messy series of rooms filled with several oddities, piles upon piles of paper, stacks of books, an unmade bed, several chairs and couches, miscellaneous objects of suspicious origin, a separate room filled with gold, silver and jewels and numerous other things.

"This is my room. I never let maids in here, so it's a bit of a mess. It technically serves as a treasury too but only because gold and silver are useful metals."

"What about all those jewels then?"

"Sometimes I get bored and make shiny things."

"You make gemstones!?"

"It's rather easy. If you don't want their value to crash you should probably keep quiet about it."

"Is this how you paid for all that food?"

"Yeah. It's sad really. Diamonds are the easiest to make and yet humans fork over the most money for them."

Sheila pulled Angelica out of her room and gestured towards the wall across the hall.

"This is your room."

"This is a wall."

"Of course it is. But we can fix that."

A blueish circle appeared in the air before Sheila. It almost seemed to lack depth, but closer inspection revealed otherwise. Around the edges where what Angelica guessed to be letters although for what language she had no idea. Occasionally they changed as Sheila interfaced with a series of changing shapes and words in the center of the circle.

"I've set the controls to manual. It will take longer but it will be better than every stray thought changing your design."

Sheila grabbed the circle and pushed it towards Angelica. It came to a stop in front of her and seemed to move with her.

"It won't bite," Sheila said. "For now just work on the basics. You'll probably want something pointy to be more accurate as you draw the schematics. Oh and those squares up there will let you change your view of the floor plans except the leftmost one. If you press that, any changes you make will be applied to the building. Also, it won't let you make a change that would crush anyone, especially yourself, so have fun."

Angelica continued to stare at the magical circle in front of her. Creating a needle, she outlined a roughly rectangular room with a door and approved the changes.

In front of her the walls moved, or maybe disappeared, to emulate what she drew. Everywhere, even the doorway, went from floor to ceiling and the room lacked furnishings of any kind. The lack of a door made it nearly indistinguishable from a badly designed hall.

Angelica dropped the needle she made and gaped at the scene before her.

"H-how did you do this? Magic is… Such precision. And control. It shouldn't be possible. Magic is too erratic."

"You have a lot of raw magical power, and by most standards you have an impressive knowledge of the art. But sometimes things are fundamentally different from what we believe."

"I have to know. Please. Teach me."

"Well of course. My adorable little apprentice won't keep coming back from her missions if I don't have something to offer."

"Missions…"

"I did bring you here on more than a whim. You're smart, strong, talented and a hanhinshu: I have all kinds of uses for you."


	3. Interlude

This fan fiction doesn't exist. You've never heard of it. If someone wishes to discuss it with you, please gently suggest that hallucinations are a serious medical problem.

Superior and Superior Cross are originally written by Ichtys and published under Square Enix in _Gangan Powered _and_ Monthly GFantasy_. Please support the official release where available.

* * *

"To fool the world, first tell the truth."

* * *

Stones crumble from a broken castle.

A man lies crying over a body.

A familiar face appears before him.

The man clasps his visitor's knees with his hands.

"Please! Save him! I'll do anything!"

"Your lord is dead. Nothing I do can change that now."

The man slumped to the ground unable to hold back the tears that hope had dried.

* * *

Behind closed doors in a large room with only the best furniture and the finer things in life, King Arechia Obsidias lay in his bed with blankets spattered with his own blood.

"You're dying Arechia. Even I can't do anything about that. I can slow the process down, but if you keep overexerting yourself, you shall last a few months at the most."

"Damn you, Altmann. You're supposed to be the best doctor in the world."

"And I am. So good in fact, that I'm resisting my urge to cause you pain just to keep you alive longer."

"Doctors aren't supposed to be sadists," the king grumbled and coughed up more blood.

"Well how can I not be? Sadism is my middle name. Seriously though, you should rest more."

"I can not rest. I have a mission to accomplish."

"Ah, yes. Revenge for your poor sweetheart. You know you can't genocide the monsters with the time you have left."

"I can. I will crush them and make this world a paradise for our kingdom."

Gathering the tools of his particular version of the trade, Doctor Altmann got up to leave.

"If I were you, I would be securing my country's future by training your son in matters of the state. It's amazing how much you've ignored that considering your circumstances."

"Juno will lead excellently without my tutelage."

"At least try to take advantage of the cessation of hostilities to recover."

"Cessation of hostilities? Monsters know nothing but war. They're obviously planning something big. This is no time to be resting."

"You try being nice, and this is what you get," Altmann mumbled to himself. "I can see nothing is going to get through to you. I'll be back next month to see if you still walk amongst the living. Be sure to take your medicine."

* * *

Angelica had spent the past several days absolutely giddy playing with the palace's control system Sheila had given her access to. The sheer thrill of it was making her forget relatively important things like where she was and what Sheila wanted with her.

Sheila had been off doing who knows what and when she did come back to eat and sleep Angelica barely registered her presence before going back to having fun.

After the first day, she had a massive series of fifty or so rooms all with their own planned features. The next day she spent figuring out how to add things to rooms. Refusing Sheila's offer to share her bed, Angelica was determined to avoid another night on the floor.

Having figured out how to generate things she then quickly lost track of how much time she spent absorbed in creation. Having discovered how to place basic enchantments, she was almost finished with the marble water slides next to the amethyst pool and quartz and cashmere poolside furnishings when hunger finally struck nearly drowning her.

Reprimanding Angelica at dinner Sheila said, "I know I've been busy but please try to find a way to amuse yourself that doesn't end in your death."

Angelica hung her head dejectedly. It had been rather humiliating when Sheila had pulled her floating body out of the pool.

"If you hadn't had the control system handy," Sheila continued, "you would have drowned you know. I'm glad I put so many safety precautions on it."

"So, you made this whole place?" Angelica asked, hoping Sheila would change the topic with her bragging.

"Yeah. As a graduation project. Celis' Wind Brigade later used it as a base of operations for a short while. One day they just up and disappeared, and that was that."

Angelica looked about to ask a question but Sheila interrupted, "But that's a whole nother story. We're talking about _you_. If you're indulging in this to the point of death, I'm not sure I can teach you how it all works without having you explode. Yes, the stuff you've made is nice. That waterfall sauna in particular. The gentle crashing of water falling in a circle around you as it flash evaporates on the ground. I haven't felt that relaxed in years… Right, you. At least eat or I'm not going to teach you a thing."

"I promise I'll eat… This won't happen again…"

"Good. I'm busy all day, but even I make time to eat. You surely can do it too."

"Now that you mention it, I've been so distracted I don't even know what you're doing."

"The most evil thing I can think of."

Sheila went back to eating heartily, and when Angelica realized she wasn't going to elaborate she asked, "Which is?"

Lowering her bowl and wiping her mouth Sheila said, "I'm instituting a bureaucracy."


End file.
